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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Sümer Sahin, Haci Mehmet sahin, Adem Acir
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 216-221
Fusion-Fission Hybrids and Transmutation | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13422
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The accumulated reactor grade (RG)-plutonium as nuclear waste of conventional reactors is estimated to exceed 1700 tonnes. Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion Fission Energy (LIFE) engine is considered to incinerate RG-plutonium in stockpiles. Calculations have been conducted for a constant fusion driver power of 500 MWth in S8-P3 approximation using 238-neutron groups. RG-plutonium out of the nuclear waste of LWRs is used in form of fissile carbide fuel in TRISO particles with volume fractions of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 %, homogenously dispersed in the Flibe coolant. Respective tritium breeding ratio (TBR) values per incident fusion neutron are calculated as TBR = 1.35, 1.52, 1.73, 2.02 and 2.47 at start-up. With the burn up of fissionable RG-Pu isotopes in the coolant, TBR decreases gradually. Similarly, blanket energy multiplications are calculated as M0 = 3.8, 5.5, 7.7, 10.8 and 15.4 at start-up, respectively. Calculations have indicated prospects of achievability of very high burn up values (> 400 000 MD.D/MT).
